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“TRIBUTE TO MRS. MINAL KUMAR” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E2039 on Oct. 10, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO MRS. MINAL KUMAR
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HON. PATSY T. MINK
of hawaii
in the house of representatives
Friday, October 9, 1998
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to give thanks for the life of Minal Kumar, an extraordinarily dedicated and effective advocate for the health of women and children in the State of Hawaii. As the only public health nutritionist on the island of Kauai, Mrs. Kumar, in the span of only six years, managed to triple the number of clients served by the State Department of Health's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs and for the first time extended WIC programs to the island of Niihau.
Minal Kumar's special mission was to encourage women to breast-feed their infants because of the significant health benefits breast-fed babies enjoy and because of the special bond that breast-feeding promotes between mother and child. Mrs. Kumar is remembered with great fondness by the people of Kauai for her commitment to the health of women and children and for her personal contribution to relief efforts after Hurricane Iniki devastated the island.
It has been almost a year since Minal Kumar's passing, but she has not been forgotten by her many friends and admirers on Kauai. A garden at the Kauai office of the Hawaii Department of Health was dedicated this past summer and a memorial fund benefiting Hawaii Mothers' Milk has been established in her name. I send my heartfelt aloha to Minal's loving family--her husband Dr. Krishna Kumar, daughter Roshni, and son Akash--and I ask all of my colleagues to join me in honoring the memory and special contributions of Minal Kumar.
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